120: Chapter 120 Monsanto's Craftsmanship

After Meng Shanshi finished speaking, everyone's gaze fell upon Li Yuan once again.

They were all waiting for Li Yuan to give an answer, to see exactly which artisan he had hired.

Judging by Meng Shanshi's attitude just now, whoever helped Li Yuan would be offending him.

If this artisan did not have much of a background or backing, it would likely be easy for them to be targeted in the future.

Top-tier artisans are united on many core issues.

If artisans did not unite and cooperate with each other, they would all suffer losses.

If artisans engaged in internal competition and mutually drove down their remuneration, they would all suffer together.

Therefore, even if there was a great conflict between two artisans, they would still cooperate on certain issues.

Since Meng Shanshi had stated it so clearly, those who were sensible knew that they could not help Li Yuan at this moment.

The surroundings were very quiet; indeed, no artisan stood up to admit that they had come to help Li Yuan participate in the Liulin Pass Grand Competition.

Meng Shanshi was very satisfied with this result.

But in fact, Li Yuan had not hired anyone at all.

The person participating was Li Yuan himself.

"The registration records are not wrong; the person participating in this Liulin Pass Grand Competition is I, Li Yuan."

Walking to the front, Li Yuan couldn't be bothered to explain much.

Just stating the result was enough.

But in the eyes of others, this scene represented that Li Yuan had reached a dead end.

The artisan originally scheduled to help was unwilling to show up.

Seeing this result, Meng Shanshi even glanced at Li Yuan, his face full of contempt.

Having accomplished all this, Meng Shanshi did not feel very happy; there was still more of a sense of loss.

Yan Wudi was already dead; even if he punished Li Yuan like this, his Yan Wudi could not be resurrected.

Meng Shanshi only hated that his power was not yet great enough, and he could only cause trouble in matters like this.

He wished more to possess martial arts strength comparable to his own artisan skills.

In that way, he would be able to avenge Yan Wudi with his own hands!

"Don't waste silver and resources in the future; as long as there is an Opportunity to obtain a Divine Weapon, I, Meng Shanshi, will compete with you for it. It will be impossible for you to obtain a top-tier Divine Weapon in this lifetime."

Meng Shanshi looked at Li Yuan and said calmly once again.

Upon hearing this, Li Yuan ignored him and just waited for the Liulin Pass Grand Competition to begin.

The 'Making a Name' segment ended.

Next was the second segment, Selection of Ore.

Nearly four hundred pieces of Ore were prepared on-site; the artisans participating in the Liulin Pass Grand Competition first had to select one piece to use for the next core segment of the competition.

The four hundred pieces of Ore had actually been pre-selected, so there would not be much difference in their general quality.

They were all silver horn iron ore produced from the same mining area.

But even children born to the same parents have significant differences, let alone silver horn iron ore produced from the same mining area.

The four hundred pieces of Ore were all placed in the central square.

There were no overly complex rules for this Selection of Ore segment.

After it was announced that Ore selection could begin, you could run to grab any piece you wanted.

This segment was not very favorable for those famous artisans.

They had quite a reputation and were embarrassed to rush to grab those high-quality pieces of Ore.

Soon, the City Lord of Liulin Pass announced that the selection of Ore had begun.

More than a dozen young artisans immediately rushed out.

They had already set their sights on the piece they wanted and moved quickly to obtain their preferred Ore.

But looking at the Ore they selected, Li Yuan found it was actually not very good.

Based on the artisan experience Li Yuan had obtained, some were even very poor.

It was just a slight opening that gave them a taste of sweetness, making them subconsciously believe that the depths of the Ore were the same.

Li Yuan did not run to compete with others, but he also didn't act profound, insisting on waiting until everyone else had taken theirs before he went.

He stepped forward, selected a decent piece, and returned to his position.

Many people's gazes were still on Li Yuan.

Seeing the piece of Ore in Li Yuan's hand, a trace of disdain flashed across their faces.

In the cognition of these artisans watching, this piece of Ore was quite poor.

The difficulty would be very high when processing it later.

And after processing, its quality would also be inferior to other pieces of Ore.

In less than half an hour, the Selection of Ore step was finished.

Finally, it was time for the main event of the Liulin Pass Grand Competition: Forging.

This year's Liulin Pass Grand Competition did not have a shaping competition.

In previous years, after forging the Ore into a blank, there was a requirement to shape it into a usable weapon.

But after many years of the competition, everyone found that evaluating the shaping was always difficult to convince people.

The shapes of swords and blades always had their own pros and cons, their own beauty and ugliness.

Everyone could find their own arguments, greatly reducing the seriousness and fairness of this competition.

Now, they simply removed the shaping segment entirely.

They would just look at the blanks forged by the participating artisans.

The quality of the blank was unrelated to its external shape.

They only needed to focus on toughness and hardness.

These two indicators did not have subjective judgments and could all be measured using a Magical Artifact.

Which artisan's skills were stronger was clear and distinct.

Liulin Pass is a Holy Land for artisans; ensuring the fairness and seriousness of this competition is what the City Lord of Liulin Pass's mansion most needed to do.

Only with fairness and seriousness could this competition be recognized.

Only then could this place, Liulin Pass, continue to exist as an artisan Holy Land.

The selection of Ore ended, and the City Lord of Liulin Pass announced that the core segment had begun.

The order of names was arranged, and the forging of the Ore began.

Everyone was grouped in order, with twenty people per group.

The forging time for one group was two hours.

Therefore, a total of three days were arranged for the blank forging segment.

Li Yuan registered very late; he should only be entering the competition on the third day.

Soon, the first group of twenty people went on stage.

In this first group, Li Yuan did not know many people.

But looking at their hammering techniques, compared to Senior Cui Dao's Seven Vajra Hammering Method, the gap was truly too large.

What they were doing was just changing angles to hammer, knocking out the Impurities.

Whereas the Seven Vajra Hammering Method had a cycle of seven hammers.

The first three hammers were for injecting force, and starting from the fourth hammer, the injected force was detonated from within.

It could be said that the Seven Vajra Hammering Method was fundamentally different from theirs.

The greatest gap among the artisans in this first group was probably the difference in their control of force and angle.

The way they were doing it, they could at most remove eighty-five percent of the Impurities.

With nearly twenty percent of Impurities remaining, how good could the quality of the blank be?

In addition, during the forging process, some mineral powder that enhanced toughness and hardness had to be added.

The Impurities inside the blank would also affect the effect of this mineral powder, leading to even worse results.

The first group of twenty people stopped after two hours.

Their performance was not very stunning, and everyone was looking forward to the next group.

Soon, the second group of twenty people entered.

Among these twenty people, there were several well-known artisans, and Meng Shanshi was also among them.

Forging officially began, and the twenty people started their work.

The sound of hammering rang out, and the surrounding artisans watching this group seemed to have brighter eyes.

Especially Meng Shanshi, who attracted many people to watch him intently.